Posted on 05/03/2009 6:05:21 AM PDT by Born Conservative
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said Saturday that it's time for the Republican Party to give up its "nostalgia" for the heyday of the Reagan era and look forward, even if it means stealing the winning strategy deployed by Democrats in the 2008 election.
"You can't beat something with nothing, and the other side has something. I don't like it, but they have it, and we have to be respectful and mindful of that," Mr. Bush said.
The former president's brother, often mentioned as a potential candidate in 2012, said President Obama's message of hope and change during the 2008 campaign clearly resonated with Americans.
"So our ideas need to be forward looking and relevant. I felt like there was a lot of nostalgia and the good old days in the [Republican] messaging. I mean, it's great, but it doesn't draw people toward your cause," Mr. Bush said.
"From the conservative side, it's time for us to listen first, to learn a little bit, to upgrade our message a little bit, to not be nostalgic about the past because, you know, things do ebb and flow."
The Florida governor joined former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and House Republican Whip Eric Cantor on Saturday at a small pizza parlor in Arlington for the inaugural event of the National Council for a New America (NCNA).
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Insight and vision from a blind RINO
It is definitely time to leave the Bushes behind. No more Bushes!
Will we never be rid of the Bushes!
Nothing new here...move along.
It’s increasingly sad to realize that these are ALL THE SAME PEOPLE. Unwilling to fight for what they believe in, because, basically, they don’t believe in anything that can’t be compromised in the blink of an eye.
Answer:
"A political party cannot be all things to all people.
It must represent certain fundamental beliefs
which must not be compromised to political expediency
or simply to swell its numbers."
-- President Ronald Reagan
"We don't intend to turn the Republican Party
over to the traitors in the battle just ended.
We will have no more of those candidates who are pledged
to the same goals as our opposition and who seek our support.
Turning the Party over to the so-called moderates
wouldn’t make any sense at all.""
-- President Ronald Reagan
I don’t know many people (including conservative Republicans) who would EVER vote for another Bush for President. EVER. They would stay home.
I’m beginning to believe that the Bush family runs as Republicans simply because in Texas you had to be Republican in order to win an election. They are becoming nearly as bad as McCain. One thing Jeb is right about is that we have to look forward and not backward - the Bush family has run its course. It is now time to find some REAL Republicans to fill the gap.
and Jeb was suppose to be the smarter one?
is becoming a national joke (or worse).
Not that our media and "expert" commentators will notice but the political climate in the US may be changing:
#1: According to Rasmussen's daily tracking poll on Obama's approval he was at +1 on Saturday. That's his lowest so far. Still those who "somewhat" approve are at 54% vs 45% for those who somewhat disapprove. But it is a large decline in approval rate since his heydays in late January.
#2: Another Rasmussen poll shows that for only the second time in 5 years the Republicans are polling better than the Democrats (41% vs 38%). The last time before this was in March.
#3 Despite an increase for the GOP in the generic congressional ballot, fewer voters consider themselves Republicans (32.6% vs 38.7% Dems).
#4 This is in keeping with the fact that 69% of GOP voters feel that their representatives in Congress have lost touch with their voters.
#5 It does not look like the voters want the GOP to move more towards the middle ground. Seventy-two percent (72%) of Republicans say it is more important for the GOP to stand for what it believes in than for the party to work with President Obama.
All of the above figures comes from various Rasmussen polls. But these figures tally well with some results from a recent Pew poll on gun control and abortion.
#6 In a Pew poll released 30 April, it was found that public attitudes on a pair of contentious national issues -- gun control and abortion -- have moved in a more conservative direction over the past year.
#7 For the first time in a Pew Research survey, nearly as many people believe it is more important to protect the right of Americans to own guns (45%) than to control gun ownership (49%). The figures for protection of the right to bear arms has never been so high, not even after 9/11, and the figure for gun control has never been below 54% before.
#8 The proportion saying that abortion should be legal in all or most cases has declined to 46% from 54% last August. Currently, 44% say abortion should be illegal in most (28%) or all cases (16%), up slightly since last August (41%). The Pew poll has only been this close on abortion once before (August 2001). Otherwise there has always been a larger proportion of the voters favouring abortion.
#9 Add to this the "tea parties" and fact that Arlen Specter had to change parties to stand any chance of saving his seat in the Senate I would say that there appears to be the beginning of a conservative backlash against the swing to the left in the elections of 2006 and 2008.
Hmm, I guess Jeb Bush does not agree with my analysis.
Jeb Bush is a RINO’s Rino.
At least this is helping fix the Republican party by showing how liberal many of our supposed ‘Republican’ elected officials really are and how this lead to the melt down of our party.
Less people are defining themselves as Republicans these days and more as independents. I know I don’t want to be associated with losers like McCain, Steele, et al who lack any backbone in confronting the Democrat socialist agenda on the economy and social issues.
What the Democrats have is the MSM, willing to wage a PR campaign for the left 24/7. Until the Republicans quit fearing the MSM and learn how to ‘out’ it, they’ll be the minority party.
You get the idea.
Please, someone tell the Bushes they are over. We don't need/want you losers anymore.
Can’t comment or would be banned for life.
Hanging with Mitt is not a good idea.
Now, if he had been at a couple of Tea parties, speaking out in thunderous rebuttal of the Hussein train, then I would be listening...
How ironic that he speaks these words on the day the great Jack Kemp passes away.
We’ve been warning conservatives about Jeb Bush for years. I hope everyone now understands who and what these people are.
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